Yes, totally restrictive. The way it worked for me on the TV series I did for Disney was to create one master Storyform for the entire Series. Then create individual storyforms for each Season. And then try and hit the points within that season and within the series within each episode. And then lastly leave yourself open to do an entire Storyform within one Episode, to kind of break things up (like an X-Files monster episode)
It’s not exact science and you’ll miss out on some points here and there but the overall sense of the thing will be this idea hat there is something bigger and grander going on. People will latch on to it.
Now it just so happened there were three seasons planned, so season one took care of the first Signpost from the Series Storyform. The second season took Signposts Two and Three and the last Season took up Signpost 4. I would have preferred four seasons but I wasn’t in charge of that. And someday I’ll explain how I had to fight for Signpost Three when many of the other creatives just wanted to end Season Two with Signpost Two and jump to Four (yuck).
Now it turned out that the Overall Stoy Concern for the Season One storyform matched the Overall Signpost One for the Series Storyform. Both were Understanding. Now you don’t have to do this, but I think it helped keep everything that was happening relevant with he bigger picture. It was certainly easier to get people to go along with it because it felt like it fit in with the bigger picture.
Likewise, Season Two’s overall Story Concern matched the Overall Signpost Two for the Series Storyform. Not sure how that will work out in the 2nd half of Season Two. It might turn out to be easier to split Season Two into two storyforms. Again the easy fix is four seasons but I’m not in charge (unfortunately!).
The hardest part is keeping everyone on track with each of the storyforms you worked out. Egos being what they are eventually the whole process breaks down without someone in charge knowing and completely understanding the purpose of the Dramatica Storyform. As a consultant you can only do so much to keep people in line with the original intent and purpose behind a story.
People unaware of Dramatica don’t understand how you can possibly know exactly what is supposed to happen 2/3 of the way into the story. And not just the general Dark Night of the Soul baloney, but specific character interactions and key arc points. They just don’t get it, and thus rebel and rewrite and essentially tear down all your hard work. But hey, I’m not in charge!
If you’re writing the whole thing yourself you’re golden and the above should work great for you. Another client of mine is doing this very same thing and she is rocking the final result. People familiar with her work are blown away by how well the latest draft of her series is structured and thought out.
I highly recommend it to anyone!
